About Gyles Brandreth:

Gyles Brandreth is a writer, broadcaster, former MP and Government Whip – and one of Britain’s most sought-after award ceremony hosts and after-dinner speakers. Currently a reporter on The One Show on BBC1 and a regular on Radio 4’s Just a Minute, his acclaimed Victorian detective stories – The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries – are now being published in twenty-one countries around the world.

A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End.

A prolific broadcaster (in programmes ranging from Just a Minute to Have I Got News for You), an acclaimed interviewer (principally for The Sunday Telegraph), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, he has published two volumes of diaries: ‘Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries’ (“By far the best political diary of recent years, far more perceptive and revealing than Alan Clark’s” – The Times) and ‘Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of a Lifetime’ (“Witty, warm-hearted and deeply poignant” – The Daily Mail).

As a performer, Gyles Brandreth has been seen most recently in Zipp! One Hundred Musicals For Less Than The Price Of One at London’s Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in Twelfth Night: The Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 2010 saw him back in Edinburgh and on tour once more with his own one-man show, The One to One Show. 2010 also saw his play, Wonderland, opening in Edinburgh. With music by Susannah Pearse, it stars Michael Maloney as Lewis Carroll and Flora Specer-Longhurst as Isa Bowman, the actress who played Alice in Wonderland on stage.

Gyles Brandreth is one of Britain’s busiest after-dinner speakers and award ceremony hosts. He has won awards himself, and been nominated for awards as a public speaker, novelist, children’s writer, broadcaster (Sony), political diarist (Channel Four), journalist (British Press Awards), theatre producer (Olivier), and businessman (British Tourist Authority Come to Britain Trophy).